NIKON COOLSCAN
Compact, inexpensive and very sexy. Price well under
£2000 - as low as £1500 for an internal model - one which
fits inside the computer. It produces files up to 27 megabytes from 35mm
film: colour or monochrome, positive or negative. Produces 8 bit per colour
images which are clean and sharp with pleasant flesh tones. Focussing can
be a little tricky. Scanning and preview time is lengthy, which makes the
Coolscan an ideal choice for those with small volumes to scan. Scan time:
5 minutes 17 seconds for a 4.2mb file.
AGFA ARCUS PLUS
The Arcus is a flatbed scanner, mainly for reflective
artwork such as prints, with a transparency hood available as an optional
extra. Total street price is around £3200. Using the transparency option
produced an 1100 ppi image, interpolated from a true resolution scan of
600 ppi. This interpolation results in some strange artifacts in the structure
of the image, though these are not noticeable at small sizes of reproduction.
Stick to multiples or sub-multiples of 600 for best results. The Arcus has
a very friendly plug in - once you get to know it. Although not the
best quality for transparencies, this has to be balanced against the additional
advantage of being able to scan prints. Scan time: 1 minute 22 seconds for
a 4.3mb file. The pre-scan time was long - about the same time as the
full scan. The Arcus is but one of many flatbed scanners which may also
be used for scanning transparencies, the range available from Microtek being
particularly interesting.
NIKON LS3510AF
A 12 bit scanner of high quality and good outline,
with a footprint of only 10 inches by 14. Typical street price is around
£5700. The maximum resolution of 3000 by 4500 pixels for a 24 x 36mm
film frame can result in file sizes up to 40mb. The plug-in has an excellent
manual focussing aid which reassuringly shows a magnified area of the image
in black and white. With a pre-scan time of 37 seconds and a final scan
time of 5 minutes, the LS3510AF produces beautiful tonal quality but is
slow.
KODAK RFS2035
An 8 bit scanner which is a joy to use. Price just
under £6500. Good range of easy to understand functions and very quick
pre-scan and scan times - the fastest of the lot by a long way. It
has to be the choice where time is money. Scan time: 15 seconds for 4.5mb
file. As though this wasn't enough, it will soon be replaced by an even
faster model, the RFS2035 Plus, which will chop a further 4 seconds of this
scan time and which, it is claimed, will do an 18mb scan in just 40 seconds.
But what's a few seconds between friends when you are already saving minutes?
The biggest plus of the new model is undoubtedly its 12 bit capability,
the ability to do 8mb, 11.5mb and 14.6mb scans in the big gap between the
4.5 and 18mb of it's predecessor. Minus points? Doesn't always focus reliably
on softened images and only has Kodak "film terms" built in. A
lot of people do use Fuji. And Agfa. And Konica. And...
LEAFSCAN-45
The only scanner tested which will scan any film from
35mm right up to 4 x 5 inches. Beautiful design, inside and out. We never
thought we'd be turned on by the back ends of scanners but this one is reminiscent
of the Chrysler building in New York City. Inside it has a trilinear array
with 6000 pixels, so some huge scans are possible. It devotes 16 bits to
each colour - 65536 levels instead of 8 bit's 256. The quality is superb,
with lovely tonality and good noise-free shadow detail. The controls are
good but take some time to understand fully. It's no slouch,either: the
scan time for our test was 1 minute 32 seconds for the pre-scan, 3 minutes
4 seconds for the full scan. The 22.5mb scan on the cover took just over
5 minutes. The instruction manual is also a mine of information about digital
imaging. Cost is around £12000 - very reasonable, for this quality
and versatility. Probably the best CCD transmission scanner. In a word:
brilliant.
